The subject of male prostitution gets a distinctly zany and offbeat twist in Stellungswechsel (AKA Special Escort), Maggie Peren's tale of five male underdogs who promulgate themselves as female escorts in the city of Munich. Of that group, we meet policeman Gy, in hot water with his insurance company and enduring the vicissitudes of an on-again, off-again romance with comely Daphne; twentysomething Lasse, who lives with his mom and is pathetically henpecked by her; Giselher, a chronically unemployed former manager; Frank, a philologist who spends his days as a house husband; and Olli, a deli proprietor whose business is rapidly going under. These five conjure up the wild idea of charging for liaisons with emotionally needy women, but the scheme doesn't exactly go as planned - as none can even begin to anticipate the eccentricities or oddities of the female clients who turn up in response to their offer.
Acting
Herbert Knaup's sad-eyed desperation is uncomfortably perfect
Writing
Peren's script finds humanity in spectacular failure
Production
Munich looks appropriately unglamorous for these broke boys
Director
Maggie Peren
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Stellungswechsel literally translates to 'change of position' — a triple entendre on career, sex, and social standing that English titles completely lose.
Maggie Peren wrote this at 25 after noticing Munich's gendered economic anxiety; most of the male cast later became staples of German television crime dramas, making this their rare comedy origin story.
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